Belgium's Bpost to Buy Radial for $820 Million

MarketWatch (Oct. 10, Smith) is reporting that Belgian postal service bpost has inked a deal to purchase U.S. logistics business Radial, the former eBay Enterprise fulfillment operator, for $820 million. The acquisition ranks as the largest ever for bpost, which has made a series of smaller acquisitions throughout North America, Europe, and Australia aimed at expanding its e-commerce business as mail volumes decline. Pennsylvania-based Radial handles online orders for e-commerce companies and such retail chains as Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. and Aéropostale Inc. In addition, it pitches itself to retailers as a tool to compete with the online giant Amazon.com Inc. "We thought it was the right moment to scale up and go faster," Koen Van Gerven, bpost's CEO remarked.